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Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Dominic Moore wins Masterton Trophy

Dominic Moore became the first Ranger to be named the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy winner since Adam Graves in 2001 when he was handed the hardware tonight at the NHL Awards Show in Las Vegas.

Moore, 33, was nominated for the award by the New York Rangers chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

The Masterton Trophy is awarded annually to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. It is often awarded to a player who has come back from career– or even life-threatening illness or injury.

But Moore did not win the Masterton tonight because his wife, Katie, passed away from a rare form of liver cancer.

The journeyman Rangers center was awarded the Masterton as a result of his actions and contributions to both hockey and society since Katie Moore died at age 32 on Jan. 9, 2013.

Moore was the perfect personification of the perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to the sport that the Masterton honors. And that’s to take nothing away from the other two finalists, the Devils’ Jaromir Jagr and the Hurricanes’ Manny Malhotra, both of whom also have displayed those qualities.

“I really appreciate and feel very grateful for this award,” Moore said in accepting the Masterton. “It’s an award I have a ton of respect for. Perseverance is something I’ve tried to bring to my life, throughout my life and perseverance is also something that doesn’t happen on your own, it is a team thing, so I’d like to thank my family, my friends, the Rangers’ organization, my teammates. I’ve had a lot of good examples of perseverance over the years and none so much as my wife, Katie. So this is award is very meaningful and I’m very grateful.”

Moore comported himself with such dignity this season after taking the 2013 season off to grieve for his late wife. He made an impact on the ice for the Rangers as they reached the Stanley Cup Final and positively influenced his teammates.

Moore scored six goals with 12 assists in 73 regular-season games - admittedly it took him a couple of months to play himself back into the rhythm he lost due to his time away from the game. He three goals and five assists in 25 playoff games as the Rangers reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1994.

He spoke, from time to time, about his wife’s death. But Moore also made it clear his No.1 intention was to help the Rangers, not to overshadow the team with his wife’s story.

And through his work with the Katie Moore Foundation, including his summer Ping-Pong tournament in Toronto for charity, Moore is helping raise research funds so others might not have to go through what he did.

In short, Moore is everything the Masterton represents.

Moore, who has played for nine franchises since his rookie season with the Rangers in 2005-06, is once again an unrestricted free agent. He has expressed his desire to return and, given how well his fourth line with fellow UFA Brian Boyle and Derek Dorsett/UFA Dan Carcillo played, allowing coach Alain Vigneault to roll four lines as he prefers, it would behoove the Rangers to re-sign him.

The Stars’ Rick Peverley presented the award to Moore. On March 10, Peverley collapsed on the Stars’ bench in a game against the Blue Jackets due to a cardiac issue and had to be resuscitated by the team’s medical staff. He missed the rest of the season and it’s unclear whether Peverley will be able to continue his NHL career.

Moore is the fifth Ranger to receive the Masterton since it was first awarded following the 1967-68 season, joining Jean Ratelle (1971), Rod Gilbert (1976), Anders Hedberg (1985), and Graves. The Montreal Canadiens are the only organization other than the Rangers to have five recipients of the trophy.
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Posted by Andrew Gross on 06/25 at 12:02 AM

Congrats to Dominic Moore on winning the Masterton Trophy. Same for Jagr and Malhotra. All three were deserving of this award. Hope he’s back next year.

Posted by Rangered on 06/25 at 01:41 AM

congrats dom. he deserves only good things the rest of the way

love to see him back on a 1 or 2 yr deal.

Posted by JJ on 06/25 at 03:33 AM

So happy for Dominic!

A totally good guy!

Posted by Bill on 06/25 at 04:25 AM

Echo those sentiments. Really hope we re sign him

Very deserved

Great teammate and role player and role model

Posted by Craig on 06/25 at 02:09 PM

congrats to d. moore - hope he sticks around.

other news - cally resigned in tampa for 6 years @ 5.8m per - seems like less than the rangers offered….

About

ANDREW GROSS covers the New York Rangers for The Record and Herald News, having joined the North Jersey Media Group in November 2007. Gross also covered the Rangers and New York Jets, as well as St. John’s basketball and Army football, for Gannett Newspapers and The Journal News (N.Y.). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a degree in newspaper journalism.